Wisc. Assembly to boost voucher schools in budget

In a last-minute set of changes to the state budget, Assembly Republican leaders plan to boost school voucher programs, remove a proposed cap on a property tax credit for disabled veterans and allow new rules to keep protesters away from the site of a proposed mine.

Also under a draft of the amendment that is still being finished, an additional $5.3 million in state taxpayer money would be funneled into the program that allows students to attend religious and other private schools at taxpayer expense in eastern Racine County. That change would allow some students who are attending private schools at their own expense to use taxpayer money in the future if their school is enrolled in the voucher program.

The changes would bring another 750 students into that program, according to projections from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.